^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

By one important measure, TikTok didn’t grow in the final quarter of 2023. In the U.S., it actually went into reverse.

This is shocking for an app that has experienced rocket-ship expansion since the Chinese tech giant ByteDance launched it in 2016.

The question is why? A few folks might be deleting the app. More likely: There are simply no more hours left in the day for people to watch more TikTok videos. This is especially true for young users who are now entering a new busy time of life known as adulthood.

Here’s the data. This chart is probably way more worrying for the company than any possible U.S. ban.

TikTok’s growth rate slows

These numbers are the growth rates of daily average users, or DAUs, for some of the popular social media services globally. This is from a quarterly review conducted by Evercore ISI analysts who tap Sensor Tower data.

After demolishing the competition from 2020 through the first half of 2022, TikTok’s DAU growth rate has collapsed. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the video service lagged Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Yes, you read that right: The ancient big blue app grew faster than TikTok.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

What is going on?

One interesting theory is that TikTok users are growing up and taking on new responsibilities that leave less time to watch videos.

When the app launched, it took the world by storm. Young kids and teenagers were especially drawn to the service’s unique creator-friendly content and culture.

Let’s say those users were about 13 when they first downloaded the app in 2016 and 2017. Now, these people are at least 20 years old. They have full-time jobs or are studying at college. For many, their parents no longer do their laundry, cook their meals, and ferry them to and from sports games, meetings, and other engagements.

For readers who have not yet experienced this, it’s called “life.” This stuff takes a lot of extra time, which leaves less for TikTok.

This shows up in the data, too. TikTok’s US average monthly users between the ages of 18 and 24 declined by nearly 9% from 2022 to 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported recently, citing analytics firm Data.ai.

“Time spent” has been the part of TikTok’s business that really caught investors’ attention. US adults were expected to spend about an hour a day in 2024 on TikTok, more than YouTube, according to eMarketer estimates.

More time = more chance to show people ads and do other things that make money. If some of TikTok’s core users can no longer afford to spend an hour a day on the app, that’s not good for business.

Remember Brielle?

This gives me a new appreciation for the honesty of a TikToker called Brielle, who was unfairly lambasted last year for complaining about her new corporate job.

After landing her first office role out of college, she posted a video describing how little time she had left each day for a personal life and basic chores. Older viewers harshly criticized Brielle for being naive and a host of other alleged failings.

What I now realize is that Brielle was probably just a heavy TikTok user who had recently grown up and realized she no longer had as much time for the app.

Deleting TikTok

I’ve seen this in my own life. My two kids have been huge fans of TikTok for years.

The older one is now in her second year of college, studying mechanical engineering. She rents a house with friends. There’s a huge study load, along with house cleaning, cooking, doing the dishes, emptying the trash, paying bills, and yes, parties.

A couple of months ago, she decided to delete TikTok from her phone. She’s part of a competition in her house right now to see who can limit screen time the most.

A year ago, this daughter watched at least two hours of TikTok per day. I’d given up trying to limit this. She’s an adult, and I have no sway anymore. And yet, she recently realized by herself that she couldn’t fit in all her new obligations and still watch TikTok for hours every day.

My younger daughter lives at home and is still in high school, so her daily TikTok intake is still massive. She’s leaving for college in the fall, so she’ll eventually face a similar dilemma with her time.

This is not just me

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed a few TikTok users in their 20s. They tell a similar story: They started noticing that TikTok, in particular, got in the way of sleep, work, household chores, and relationships.

They also said many of their friends have deleted the app or scaled back their use in recent months.

Keilah Bruce, a 27-year-old accountant, told the Journal she stopped using TikTok last year.

“I’m at a good place now with my friends, my family, my dishes, and my laundry,” she said. “I don’t want to sacrifice those things anymore.”

“TikTok offers several tools, from custom screen-time limits to sleep reminders, that are used by millions of people to help them make intentional decisions about how they spend their time,” a TikTok spokeswoman told the Journal, adding that the app regularly reminds people of these features.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/tiktoks-growth-rate-is-collapsing-despite-possible-us-ban/471047

A new list from Forbes and market research company Statista ranks the best startup employers in the country.

The startups under consideration had to have more than 50 employees and founded between 2014 and 2021. They also couldn’t be offshoots of larger corporations; they had to have been started independently.

Statista looked at millions of data points, from social media posts and online reviews on the side of employees to employee retention rates, job openings, and workplace flexibility on the part of employers. Each startup received a score and was then ranked in comparison to the rest.

Related: 10 Traits You Need to Make It as a Startup Employee

Out of thousands of startups in the U.S., the top five stood out for their reputations, employee satisfaction, and growth, according to the report. Two are in Massachusetts, one is in California, one is in Oregon, and one is in Michigan. Three of the five were in the energy and resources industry, with the remaining two in security and healthcare.

Here’s a look at the top five.

1. ONE

Our Next Energy (ONE), a four-year-old electric vehicle battery startup, took the No. 1 spot because of its culture, according to Forbes. The Michigan-based startup reportedly has a “no ego” mindset and allows employees to freely express their ideas.

In December, ONE’s Gemini electric vehicle battery reached 608 miles on a single charge, which is more than double the range of many EVs on the market today.

2. Coalition

Coalition, a cybersecurity startup based in San Francisco, is the largest startup that offers cyber insurance with more than 85,000 customers, according to Forbes. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2017 and its latest valuation was $5 billion. It was also on the Forbes Fintech 50 list.

3. Electric Hydrogen

Electric Hydrogen, a Massachusetts-based startup that strives to unlock low-cost green hydrogen, a clean-energy technology, was ranked No. 3. It’s the first billion-dollar green hydrogen startup, and it prioritizes employee wellness with an on-site gym, location flexibility, and unlimited PTO.

4. Intersect Power

Intersect Power is another clean energy startup, but one that brings low-carbon solutions to customers around the world. The Oregon-based company was founded in 2016 and announced the commercial operation of a new solar energy project last year.

Related: Rivian Announces New Electric Vehicles That Will Cost a Lot Less — and Are ‘Bursting With Personality’

5. Devoted Health

Devoted Health, a seven-year-old health insurance startup based in Massachusetts with the mission of changing health care for seniors for the better, was ranked No. 5 because the 2,000-person company has “mastered the art of connecting with others while working remotely,” according to Forbes.

For the full list, click here.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/here-are-the-best-startup-employers-in-america-report/471046

The once-beloved sports website Deadspin has laid off its entire staff after it was acquired by a European startup.

Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media sold the sports site to Lineup Publishing on Monday, prompting G/O’s CEO Jim Spanfeller to notify the company and its properties that Deadspin was shuttering and that no employees would be retained.

“I do want to make it clear that we were not actively shopping Deadspin,” the memo read. “Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand.”

Related: Bumble Layoffs Cut 30% of Workforce, Gen Z Over Dating Apps

Lineup, which is based out of Malta, is a growing media company that is self-described as “dedicated to creating, acquiring, and managing high-quality media brands across a variety of sectors.”

Financials of the acquisition were not disclosed, though Spanfeller cited “tough competition in the sports journalism section” and a “valuation that reflected a sizable premium from our original purchase price for the site” as reasons for accepting the offer.

“Although we are seeing some improvement so far this year on the advertising front, and I am cautiously optimistic this will continue, we are cognizant of the need to focus on the core sites we feel can best prosper in the current and future media business environment,” Spanfeller wrote.

Roughly 12 employees were affected by the Deadspin shuttering.

This is not the first sale G/O Media has made in recent months.

Related: Snap Inc. to Layoff 10% of Its Total Global Workforce

Last year, G/O sold Lifehacker to Ziff Davis in March, followed by the sale of the women-focused site Jezebel to Paste Magazine in November.

Deadspin was sold to G/O Media in 2019 with several other former Gawker brands.

G/O still retains ownership of nine other editorial properties including Gizmodo, The Onion, and Quartz.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/deadspin-cuts-entire-staff-after-surprise-sale-to-startup/471050

Vending machines have become an unexpected and popular investment trend, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

On paper, the side hustle looks simple. Buy a secondhand machine, which the WSJ estimates would cost about $1,500, fill it with candy and soda from wholesalers like Sam’s Club and Costco, mark up the price by as high as 100% per unit, and collect cash.

A vending machine owner can usually get started for less than $2,000 and expand at their own pace, giving the side hustle the benefit of low startup costs. Owners restock the products in the machine and collect revenue a few times a month, so they set their own hours and have a relatively passive income source.

A small-time business owner wouldn’t feel out of place in the vending machine industry, which primarily consists of small, independent operators that bring in less than $1 million per year, according to Vending Locator. As per Vending Market Watch, the number of vending machines in the U.S. increased by about 4.5% from 2021 to 2022.

Related: At 23, She Started a Side Hustle for ‘Quick Money.’ Now the Business Brings in More Than $1 Million a Month — and Boasts Celebrity Fans.

Vending machines made a major comeback during the pandemic, with the rise of contactless purchases.

“It’s touchless, it’s considered safe and it’s prepackaged,” Carla Balakgie, chief executive of the National Automatic Merchandising Association, told The Washington Post.

Still, the landscape can be competitive. The U.S. has seven million vending machines, or one for every 50 Americans, according to Vending Locator, and the machines run the risk of damage because of disgruntled users, environmental conditions, or other factors.

Profits per machine can vary greatly, but the average revenue per week from one machine is usually around $75 per week, as per N2Go.

Operating costs can add up too. According to a recent report in the business news outlet The Hustle, taxes, transaction fees for card purchases (about 5-6%), and service costs can eat into profits. The outlet states that about half of revenue goes into the cost of items in the vending machines.

Zach Downey, owner and CEO of cotton candy vending machine company Distinctive Vending, told Entrepreneur in March about a time when two of his machines stopped working at the same time at one resort.

“I remember driving from Virginia to Texas in one stretch just to make sure we didn’t lose the resort’s business,” he said. “It was a stressful period, but I learned a lot.”

Related: He ‘Accidentally Discovered’ a Semi-Passive Side Hustle in College — Now He’s on Track to Make More Than $500,000 This Year

Downey is on track to bring in $500,000 in revenue this year with 10 machines.

There have also been some issues regarding new technology. Adaria Vending Services was recently scrutinized over the facial recognition technology that University of Waterloo students glimpsed on its smart vending machines. Though Adaria stated that its vending machines detected faces to activate payments, the university still requested that the machines be removed from campus.

Moreover, a February report from Transparency Market Research shows that the intelligent vending machine industry is set to grow to $8.2 billion by 2031 (from $4.9 billion in 2022).

Related: A College Is Removing Its Vending Machines After a Student Discovered They Were Using Facial-Recognition Technology

The rise of vending machine side hustles may be due to necessity. According to Bankrate, 39% of Americans currently have a side hustle and 28% think that they’ll always need one to make ends meet. Of those with a side hustle, about one in three say they need the money to pay for essentials, for everyday living expenses — not for fun.

“Side hustles have become more common, but like so many things in this inflationary environment, people are working harder but not necessarily getting ahead,” Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst, told Bankrate.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/why-vending-machines-are-an-unexpected-popular-side-hustle/470992

One New York University student is going viral after admitting they spend $500 commuting every weekend to a six-month hospitality internship — in Naples, Florida.

Vincent Campanaro, a first-year student at NYU’s Stern School of Business, appeared on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.” last week to talk about the decision to work for the semester at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida.

[embedded content]

“There’s multiple layers to this, actually,” Campanaro said, adding that it was a “complete coincidence” that he ended up in Florida.

“The internship market in general is incredibly competitive right now,” he said on the program. “So, you’ve got people applying with, say, perfect test scores, perfect GPA, everything, and they send 200 applications, and they don’t get a single offer.”

Related: Summer Intern Goes Viral For Flying Weekly From Charleston to New Jersey For Internship Because It’s ‘Cheaper Than Rent’

It’s a decision that he estimates will cost $10,000 by the time the internship is over.

Campanaro flies down to Florida after his classes end at 12:15 p.m. on Fridays and will come back to New York at 9 p.m. on Sundays.

“There have been times where I had to sleep at the airport or just book a completely different flight because my flight price increased,” Campanaro admitted. “[But] I’ve learned so much.”

The Ritz Carlton Naples is a luxe, five-star beach hotel on Florida’s West Coast. Rooms can start at over $1,000 a night during the peak Winter season. The hotel reopened in July 2023 after an extensive renovation that began in 2021.

Campanaro is not the first worker to open up about “supercommuting” to offset a competitive market and costs of living.

In January, Wall Street Journal journalist Chip Cutter revealed that he commutes weekly from Columbus, Ohio, to work in his New York City office three out of five working days.

A 21-year-old corporate marketing intern named Sophia Celentano also went viral over the summer after revealing that she was commuting by plane from Charleston, South Carolina to Newark, New Jersey once a week when she was required to be in the office for her internship.

Related: ‘Oddly Thrilling’: Reporter Says He Super Commutes from Ohio to New York City Every Week

Still, Campanaro believes that despite the cost and lengthy commute, it’s worth it for the sake of potential future opportunities.

“Despite the challenges of traveling thousands of miles monthly, the rewards have been immeasurable,” Campanaro said. “Plus, the connections I have made, both within the company and in the broader community—many of whom come from backgrounds different from mine—have significantly broadened my perspective.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/intern-supercommutes-from-new-york-to-florida-every-weekend/470996

Social media forum Reddit, which has been around for nearly two decades, is finally going public. An SEC filing released today shows that the company wants to raise up to $748 million in its upcoming stock launch — which would place its valuation at up to $6.5 billion.

Reddit plans to sell 22 million shares at $31 to $34 per share, according to the filing. The company has marked out about 1.76 million shares for its most invested users.

Related: Reddit Offered 75,000 Users the Chance to Preregister for Shares Before Its IPO. The Reactions Were Pure Reddit.

Reddit recorded more than one billion posts and 16 billion comments in total from users through the end of last year, as per the filing. The site drew more than 500 million monthly visitors in December 2023 alone.

^{Reddit Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images}

Semrush data reveals that Reddit was the third most visited website in the U.S. in December 2023, beating Facebook with a difference of about 535 million views. Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok lagged behind at 10th, 13th, and 17th place, respectively.

Reddit could be the first major tech initial public offering (IPO) of 2024. The filing brings up the pros and cons of the platform and the value it offers to users and investors.

Reddit’s Value

Throughout the filing, Reddit emphasized factors that set its platform apart from its competitors, with the word “trust” appearing nearly 100 times in the filing and “authentic” appearing 39 times.

“Reddit’s community ecosystem is organically built upon shared interests, passions, and trust rather than friends, celebrities, and their followers,” read the document. “This distinction results in a unique sense of belonging, privacy, and authenticity for our users.”

Artificial intelligence was also something Reddit directly addressed, labeling the site’s content “a foundational part” of training leading AI models on the market. Reddit has also internally created AI to address onboarding, translation, and content moderation.

Related: AI Is Changing How Businesses Recruit for Open Roles — and How Candidates Are Gaming the System

“Our massive corpus of conversational data and knowledge is what makes us unique, and we believe its value will continue to grow over time as our user-generated data continues to grow,” Reddit wrote.

Reddit’s Risks

In the filing, Reddit also identified multiple events that could harm the company’s growth. Industry competitors, lower-quality ads, technical problems, inappropriate uses of the platform, and negative publicity were all factors the company listed.

Reddit warned in the filing that its community’s participation in its IPO could cause “increased volatility” in the price of its stock. Redditors have manipulated low-performing stock or “meme stock” before, with GameStop being a notable example that lost institutions billions of dollars.

Reddit has also never returned a profit, and the company cautions that it might have net losses in the future. As of December 2023, Reddit had a deficit of about $716.6 million.

Related: JPMorgan Says Its AI Cash Flow Software Cut Human Work By Almost 90%

The site is still in its early stages of generating revenue, and its ability to make a profit depends on scaling its advertising business and trying out other ways of generating revenue. Reddit’s filing shows that there’s no guarantee that the company will succeed in getting non-advertising revenue.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/how-much-reddit-wants-to-raise-in-upcoming-ipo-new-details/470972

The 2024 Academy Awards closed out awards season with a bang, including a showstopping and celebrity-filled performance of “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling and a surprise pregnancy reveal on the red carpet by actress Vanessa Hudgens.

And while “Oppenheimer” emerged as the big winner of the evening with seven awards including Best Picture and Best Director, one of the most talked-about parts of The Oscars is still…the super-exclusive gift bags.

But this year, insiders are shedding light on the coveted goodie bags, which have been rumored to include everything from all-expenses-paid vacations to medical treatments.

Here’s what A-list guests took home with them (even if it’s not a statue). In a TikTok that’s now garnered over 394,000 views, the creators of the gift bags, LA-based marketing from Distinctive Access shows what’s inside the 2024 bags, worth an estimated $178,000 each.

@officialspin1038 What do you think of these Goodie Bags worth $178,000! ? SPIN caught up with the fabulous team behind the official Oscars Goodie Bags, to see what the biggest stars in Hollywood are being gifted at this year’s awards!? For all the latest Hollywood and Oscars news keep SPIN loud and follow us for more! #Oscars #Hollywood #GoodieBag #celeb #BTS ♬ original sound – SPIN 1038

The bags traditionally only go to the host, Jimmy Kimmel, and the nominees in each of the major acting and directing categories, typically around 25 of the top nominees.

This year’s bags included a $50,000 adventure to a ski chalet in the Swiss Alps.

“It’s from Chalet Zermatt Peak, and they get the entire chalet for themselves and up to nine friends,” the team explained. “They [also] get a private luxury villa in St. Barts from St. Barts Paradise with $25,000.”

The bags also include a week’s worth of wellness renewal treatments worth an estimated $24,000 at Golden Door in San Marcos, California, as well as a private show from The Mentalist, a magician-adjacent performer that relies on “intuitive abilities” to predict behavior from audience members, valued at $25,000.

Other top items included a 24-inch private wine fridge and a 3-D printed six-inch figurine of each of the bag recipients.

@wallstreetjournal Whether they win or not, top nominees reliably leave the Oscars with thousands of dollars in swag. Here, a look at how the most extravagant goodie bags in Hollywood come together. ?: Sean Dong, Courtesy of Distinctive Assets #oscars #academyawards #hollywood #oscarsgiftbag #wsj #thewallstreetjournal #wallstreetjournal ♬ original sound – The Wall Street Journal

“The bags are basically a marketing deal,” per the WSJ. “Brands pay the agency at least $4,000 to expose their goods to some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Most of the expensive items are just invites for trips or services, so they don’t have any real value until the celebrity uses it.”

This year’s freebies also included a slew of other trinkets, including scotch, chocolates, a Rubik’s Cube, cat food and additional everyday products that can fill up an entire suitcase — and another two bags worth.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/peek-inside-the-2024-academy-awards-oscars-vip-gift-bags/470987

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

If you own a Tesla, you might want to be extra careful logging into the WiFi networks at Tesla charging stations.

Security researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry of Mysk Inc. published a YouTube video on Thursday explaining how easy it can be for hackers to run off with your car using a clever social engineering trick.

Here’s how it works.

Many Tesla charging stations — of which there are over 50,000 in the world — offer a WiFi network typically called “Tesla Guest” that Tesla owners can log into and use while they wait for their car to charge, according to Mysk’s video.

Using a device called a Flipper Zero — a simple $169 hacking tool — the researchers created their own “Tesla Guest” WiFi network. When a victim tries to access the network, they are taken to a fake Tesla login page created by the hackers, who then steal their username, password, and two-factor authentication code directly from the duplicate site.

Although Mysk used a Flipper Zero to set up their own WiFi network, this step of the process can also be done with nearly any wireless device, like a Raspberry Pi, a laptop, or a cell phone, Mysk said in the video.

Once the hackers have stolen the credentials to the owner’s Tesla account, they can use it to log into the real Tesla app, but they have to do it quickly before the 2FA code expires, Mysk explains in the video.

One of Tesla vehicles’ unique features is that owners can use their phones as a digital key to unlock their car without the need for a physical key card.

Once logged in to the app with the owner’s credentials, the researchers set up a new phone key while staying a few feet away from the parked car.

The hackers wouldn’t even need to steal the car right then and there; they could track the Tesla’s location from the app and go steal it later.

Mysk said the unsuspecting Tesla owner isn’t even notified when a new phone key is set up. And, though the Tesla Model 3 owner’s manual says that the physical card is required to set up a new phone key, Mysk found that that wasn’t the case, according to the video.

“This means with a leaked email and password, an owner could lose their Tesla vehicle. This is insane,” Tommy Mysk told Gizmodo. “Phishing and social engineering attacks are very common today, especially with the rise of AI technologies, and responsible companies must factor in such risks in their threat models.”

When Mysk reported the issue to Tesla, the company responded that it had investigated and decided it wasn’t an issue, Mysk said in the video.

Tesla didn’t respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Tommy Mysk said he tested the method out on his own vehicle multiple times and even used a reset iPhone that had never before been paired to the vehicle, Gizmodo reported. Mysk claimed it worked every time.

Mysk said they conducted the experiment for research purposes only and said no one should steal cars (we agree).

At the end of their video, Mysk said the issue could be fixed if Tesla make physical key card authentication mandatory and notified owners when a new phone key is created.

This isn’t the first time savvy researchers have found relatively simple ways to hack into Teslas.

In 2022, a 19-year-old said he hacked into 25 Teslas around the world (though the specific vulnerability has since been fixed); later that year, a security company found another way to hack into Teslas from hundreds of miles away.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/hackers-found-a-simple-new-way-to-steal-a-tesla-heres-how/470910

A new report from researchers at Harvard, Columbia, and Duke suggests your startup idea doesn’t have to be big and you don’t have to go national to be successful. In fact, most startups aren’t huge, glamorous giants like Amazon or Uber. Many are small businesses that stay local and don’t intend to create new markets.

The study posits that small businesses like 3D printing labs and Internet cafes are essential to innovation because even though they aren’t the origin point of new technology, they play an essential role in making sure that the technology reaches people locally.

“Businesses like auto repair services, video rental stores, or IT consulting are not themselves innovative, but they both exist because of and are critical to realizing the value of an underlying technological innovation (motor vehicles, video cassettes, computers),” the paper reads.

Harvard University PhD student Innessa Colaiacovo, Columbia Business School professor Jorge Guzman, and Duke University professor Daniel Gross published the research, which offers new evidence that shows that small startups might actually have an economic advantage over the Amazons and Ubers of the world: They could simply know local markets better and use that to their advantage.

Related: The Little Coffee Shop That Asks Customers Not to Be Quiet

“Our canonical video rental store entrepreneur, or auto mechanic, might recognize growing local demand before large competitors, secure exclusionary assets (e.g., prime locations), and establish market presence,” the study reads.

“Main Street” local startups are an important piece of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, according to the study, because by selling accessories or offering services, small startups play an important role in allowing innovation to diffuse into the economy.

A small startup might not necessarily create a new phone, for example, but could sell phone cases or offer repair services.

Though knowing more about a local market might give them an advantage, small businesses come with their challenges. About 18% of small businesses close their doors within a year, and half close within 5 years, according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

Related: Why This Entrepreneur Left Tesla to Open a Tech Repair Franchise

The researchers used patent data to pinpoint 386 new technologies over the past 100 years and then connected those technologies to business registration records from 47 states to get a better picture of how innovation leads to small businesses.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/small-local-businesses-have-this-one-competitive-advantage/470901

Electric vehicle company Rivian announced new electric vehicles on Thursday with prices that indicate that the startup is turning in a new direction — towards more affordable offerings.

Rivian’s existing R1 vehicles start at $70,000 and can be as expensive as $100,000, but the three new midsized electric vehicles that the company announced on Thursday start at or below $45,000.

The R2 is a five-seater, midsize SUV “with a thoroughly developed technology platform that is bursting with personality,” according to Rivian. It is available to reserve now in the U.S. with a $100 commitment, with shipments expected in the first half of 2026.

^{R2 exterior. Credit: Rivian}

^{R2 interior. Credit: Rivian}

The R3 is a midsize crossover with a lower starting price than the R2, though Rivian did not disclose the exact price. It has a performance variant called the R3X that amps up the capabilities of the R3, which aren’t fully clear yet. Both R3 models will start shipping out after R2 shipments start.

Related: Amazon Expands Eco-friendly Electric Vehicle Fleet

^{The three new electric vehicles. Credit: Rivian}

The R2 and R3 lines will have the option of two battery sizes, with the larger one offering at least 300 miles of range per charge and 0-60 mph acceleration in under 3 seconds.

“Our R1 flagship vehicles served as our handshake with the world – with R2 and R3 our obsessive goal is to stay true to Rivian’s product attributes while making our products accessible to a lot more people,” said Rivian Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud.

Rivian’s move into a more affordable EV market, with prices comparable to the Tesla Model Y, which starts at $43,990, comes at a time of slowing EV growth. Rivian’s February forecasts showed that the company’s anticipated EV production numbers of about 57,000 vehicles were below analyst estimates. Rivian lost about $2 billion last year and cut its workforce by 10%.

Relevant: ‘Next Tesla’ Electric Car Startups Hit Speed Bump: ‘Investors Want To See Demand’

Rivian estimates a savings of over $2.25 billion by producing the first R2 electric vehicles in its existing factory in Illinois. The company said it plans to scale production of R2 and R3 at its Georgia site, and eventually be able to produce 215,000 units of the R1, R2, and other models.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/rivian-announces-r2-r3-midsize-evs-at-a-lower-price-point/470891